Friday, September 7, 2012

Jazz European Style

This is such a perfect illustration of the stark difference between jazz in Europe and jazz in America. From the perspective of an American jazz musician, everything in this video is upside down:



In America, the two attractive young women would be either ignoring or glaring at the band. And the musicians would be competent. And unpretentious. And, for that matter, paid a fraction of what these guys are likely getting.

Note: there are some great, unpretentious jazz musicians in Europe, and some terrible, pretentious ones here (and, somewhere, uninhibitedly dancing young people). But, still...

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this. You know much more about the pay of Jazz musicians, but given the generally much lower pay everyone else is getting in Ukraine, I find it hard to believe these guys are doing better than they would if they performed at an American jazz festival.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Big jazz biz in America pays only a little less than big jazz biz in Europe.

    But this is a little festival in a little town, using local talent. The analog in America pays close to nothing. And I'd bet these guys are making way more than nothing.

    ReplyDelete